Voyage of Vengeance

  Still, I thought I had better make sure her door was safely closed. I went down to the hangar and up the tunnel to the detention cells. From afar I looked at the outside of her door.

  Even if he got here, Heller would never suspect I had her. They hadn’t even written her name in the log.

  I wondered if I had left any other clues lying around.

  I ran into Captain Stabb. “We’re all keened up for those bank robberies now,” he said. “If it’s in Europe or Africa, we can use the line-jumper. But if you’re going over to America, I think it’s better we take the tug. So we checked out her water and air today. She’s got fuel enough to make it to the fifteenth Hell and back twenty times over.”

  “If you take Tug One,” I said, “the assassin pilots will be tagging us with their two flying cannons.”

  “They won’t touch us unless we try to leave the planet. By the way, we cut out your share of the wallets. It’s in here.”

  I followed him into their stone-walled sleeping rooms. With a shock I saw they had laid out on the table the valuables of the passengers and crew. Evidence!

  There were wristwatches, rings, traveler’s checks, money and ID cards!

  “Devils,” I said. “We can’t have this stuff lying around. It would connect us to the crash!”

  “Well, we were just waiting until you came down. We’ll pry the stones out of the jewelry, melt the gold. . . .”

  “And throw the watches away,” I said.

  He shrugged.

  “And don’t try to forge those traveler’s checks,” I warned him.

  He frowned.

  I was about to take it up further when my eye lighted on something.

  Krak’s purse!

  Talk about leaving evidence around! I grabbed it.

  “Here, here,” said Stabb. “You can’t do that. There’s a lot of money in it.”

  “If that Royal officer came in here and found this, he’d shoot us to bits!”

  “Is he going to come here?”

  “He might.”

  “I thought he was going to be killed.”

  I said, “That’s in progress this very minute.”

  “Oh, well, then. Why worry?”

  “He might come here first.”

  “Oho!” said Captain Stabb. “In that case I’ll order my men to go armed even in the hangar. You don’t have anything to worry about, Officer Gris. We’ll shoot him on sight. Okay?”

  I was somewhat mollified.

  By giving up my share of the loot and the money, they agreed to destroy the evidence and let me take Krak’s purse away.

  Back in my room I went through it.

  MY SQUEEZA CREDIT CARD!

  After all the trouble that had caused, I had it back!

  It cheered me up for hours.

  I regarded it as a portent, an omen of good fortune. To me it looked like things were really on the mend.

  PART SIXTY-ONE

  Chapter 6

  Just as my nerves were about to snap like overtightened wires, Heller showed up on his viewer.

  What a relief!

  He was debarking from a Pan Am plane at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. It was very early morning there.

  He was walking very slowly. At immigration they had to ask him twice for his passport. At customs the stone-faced official had to open his bag himself.

  Heller walked out to the lobby. His name was being called and he went over to the message desk.

  The chauffeur from the condo was waiting for him there.

  “Did you bring the bag?” said Heller.

  “Yes, sir,” said the chauffeur. “And the Porsche is in the parking lot.”

  Heller reached into his pocket and came up with a banknote. He handed it to the chauffeur. “You better catch a cab back. I’m not returning home.”

  “Sir, I do not mean to intrude, but do you think that is wise? We all think you would be much better in familiar surroundings.”

  “That’s the trouble with them,” said Heller in a dead voice. “They’re too familiar.”

  “Sir, Mr. Epstein said . . .”

  “I know, I phoned him from the plane just after I phoned you. I know you all mean it kindly. But all I want is to go off by myself a little while and try to get over this.”

  My luck was holding! This was exactly what I needed!

  Hastily, I called Raht on the radio. “Where are you?”

  “I’ll be at JFK in about an hour. I’m on TWA from Rome via Brussels.” I could hear the background roar of the plane engines.

  “He’s going to be off by himself. Call me the instant you land.”

  “Will do,” said Raht. He clicked off.

  My attention went back to Heller. He was following the chauffeur across a parking lot. The Porsche was sitting there.

  The cat!

  He was at the window.

  The chauffeur unlocked the door and the cat sprang for Heller’s chest. Heller petted it and put the cat on his shoulder.

  “At least he’ll be some company for you,” said the chauffeur. “He’s just been moping around the house. I put his food and things in the back like you said.”

  Heller got in, took the keys and started the car. The chauffeur saluted and Heller drove away.

  “Well, cat,” he said, “I guess we’ve got to get used to her being gone.” There was a catch in his voice. My screen went misty.

  Oh, this was ideal. Heller wouldn’t be alert at all! He was even driving kind of slow and wooden. I had planned much better than I thought. I had depressed him beyond belief. He would be a sitting duck!

  He was driving north up the Van Wyck Expressway. It did not tell me yet where he was going.

  He passed the turns that would take him into New York and drove straight on.

  He entered the Whitestone Expressway and shortly crossed the Bronx Whitestone Bridge. He continued north on the Hutchinson River Parkway. At Exit 6 he turned into the New England Thruway.

  Suddenly I understood. I could not believe my luck! He was heading for the roadhouse in Connecticut! I was sure of it!

  Despite old blind ladies and deputy sheriffs I would have to pilot Raht in there.

  Well, I could do it.

  I grabbed a map. The whole trip up there from JFK Airport was only about forty-five miles.

  He turned off the expressway and went through a town. He went along the state highway and turned onto the cow path. He came up to the abandoned service station and the old lady came out.

  “Where’s your sweetheart today?” she said.

  Heller couldn’t answer her. My viewer misted.

  He got the jeep out and put the Porsche in the garage. He transferred his baggage and drove off.

  I had realized before that this old highway, long since grown over, was the same one which used to serve the roadhouse. And sure enough, he drove along over brush and between trees and came to the creek with the broken wooden bridge. He put the jeep in four-wheel drive, went through the creek bed, pulled up the far bank and was shortly stopped under the huge maple trees.

  He unlocked the door, carried his baggage in and with very slow movements, quite unlike him, began to straighten up one of the old bedrooms so that it could be used for sleeping quarters.

  My radio went live. “I’ve cleared in,” said Raht.

  “Oh, are you in luck,” I said. “Now listen carefully.” And I gave him very explicit directions to rent a car and where to go. “And when you get in sight of the abandoned service station, leave your car and continue on foot. The old lady will come out. She carries a shotgun for intruders. Shoot her. Then proceed on foot.” And I gave him the rest of the directions to get to the roadhouse. “When you get across the creek, hide under a bush and call him. He is certain to come to the door, thinking it is one of the deputy sheriffs. When he does, shoot him.”

  “I’ve got all that,” said Raht. “There’s something else. I want you to give me the direct order, very explicit, to kill a Royal officer, by name
. I have a recorder on right here in the terminal. In that way, if this ever comes to trial, it’s your responsibility.”

  I almost laughed to myself. The order came from Lombar Hisst and he controlled Voltar, even the Emperor. I said, “I am Officer Gris. You, Agent Raht, are ordered to kill one Jettero Heller, Grade Ten Combat Engineer of the Fleet.” I added the date and time.

  “Now one more thing,” said Raht. “If I do this I want ten thousand dollars cash. I’m not in this business for my health. You’ve had me on lowered allowance and pay for months and I mean to get my own back.”

  I almost laughed. He had just made it worth ten thousand to me to shoot him the next time I laid eyes on him. “Of course,” I said. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll make it twenty thousand. How’s that?”

  There was silence at the other end. Then an excited, “It’s a deal! But I’m not going to rent a car. I’m going into town first to steal one and also get a silenced rifle. It’ll only add an hour to my schedule. I want to make awful sure of this. All right?”

  “I hope it’s a big caliber,” I said.

  “Will do. Officer Gris, you’ve made my day!”

  He clicked off.

  I polished my hands one against the other.

  Heller dead!

  This I was going to ENJOY!

  PART SIXTY-ONE

  Chapter 7

  Heller was sitting in the main room of the old bootleggers’ roadhouse in Connecticut. The door was open but the light was dim.

  He was holding in his hands a handkerchief with the initial K on it. His head was down. He must be feeling very bad.

  The cat seemed to sense his mood and was just sitting on the floor, looking at him.

  Two hours had gone by and he had not moved.

  My radio went live. Raht’s muted voice. “I’m on the other side of the creek. I can see the roadhouse.”

  “Be very silent,” I said. “He has good ears. He’s sitting in the main room and the door is open. What kind of a rifle do you have?”

  “Sako Safari Grade .300 Winchester Magnum. Thirty-two hundred feet per second muzzle velocity, more than a ton and a half foot-pounds of impact.”

  “Excellent,” I said. “It will blow his head off.”

  “Yes. And just to make sure, I’ve got specially loaded explosive bullets. The rifle is silenced.”

  “Did you get the old blind woman?”

  “I sure took care of her,” he said. “You’re on the level about that twenty thousand now, aren’t you?”

  “Indeed so,” I said. “Now listen, just angle around until you can see in the door and let him have it. Shoot to kill, first shot.”

  “Got it. Be sure and tell me if he hears anything or moves.”

  “I will,” I said.

  I watched the screen carefully. Heller was just sitting there. A perfect target.

  Minutes went by. Then my radio went live again. Raht’s voice was a barely audible whisper. “I am under a bush about twenty-five yards from the house. But I can’t see in the door. Trees are in the way. Is it all right if I call to him and get him to come out on the porch? The second I see his head, I can fire.”

  “Do it,” I said impatiently.

  I tensely watched my screen.

  Then I heard a faint voice through my speaker: “Hey, whitey engineer!” Oh good, he’d think it was a deputy.

  Heller’s head lifted. He was looking toward the open door.

  The call repeated: “Whitey engineer!”

  Heller put the handkerchief in his pocket. He reached around to the back of his belt and drew the .45 Llama automatic. I hadn’t realized he was armed or would be suspicious.

  He got up.

  He went to the door.

  He didn’t see anything and stepped further out on the porch.

  BLAM!

  An explosive bullet crashed into stone to his left.

  Raht had missed!

  Heller went down on one knee. He was looking at a bush.

  He raised the .45 and, without sighting, fired!

  There was a yelp of pain!

  Then a blast of fire from the bush.

  BLAM!

  The visio on my screen went dead!

  There was the sound, metallic. The pistol dropping to the stone. Then the thud of a body falling.

  BLAM!

  My speaker was dead.

  I sat there for an eerie moment.

  No visio.

  No sound.

  Gradually it was borne in upon me that Heller had been hit in the temple, destroying the visio. Then he had dropped his pistol and he himself had fallen. And Raht, taking no chances, had fired again, hitting him in the head and destroying the audio bug.

  I sat very still.

  I could not believe my luck.

  HELLER WAS DEAD!

  PART SIXTY-ONE

  Chapter 8

  I sat there in a daze.

  For all these long months he had made my life a mess of assorted hells.

  And he was gone.

  I had expected to feel surges of jubilation. Instead, I was sort of numb.

  A fantasy that his ghost might come and haunt me passed through my mind.

  I shook it off. Psychologists and psychiatrists were all agreed men had no souls. They were just animals, just a bunch of cells. There was no life after death. Thank heavens for that! It sort of steadied me.

  Maybe if I shared this news the expected joy would come.

  I got to my feet. They were festered and painful. I picked up the radio and limped down the passageway to the hangar. I found Stabb.

  “I’ve got good news for you,” I said. “The Royal officer has just been executed. He’s dead!”

  Stabb’s beady eyes flared. “You don’t mean it!”

  “Fact,” I said. “He’s just had his head blown off.”

  Stabb gave a bark of joy. He yelled to his crew. He told them and they cheered.

  “Oh, Gods,” said Stabb, “that should happen to every condemned officer in the Fleet! Them and their high-and-mighty ways. How can an honest pirate do his job with (bleepards) like that around! So he’s dead, is he? Well, let’s get cracking on the bank robberies, now that that is off your mind.”

  My radio went live. “Officer Gris! I’ve got the blood staunched now. He got me in the leg. I’m in bad shape, Officer Gris. I can’t walk. You’ve got to get me out of here.”

  “Oh, I think you can manage it,” I said. “We’ve got other things to do than cover up your bungling.”

  “Officer Gris,” said Raht, “I don’t think you understand. When I was looking for bandages, I looked down a shaft and there’s all kinds of equipment here. For Gods’ sakes, come over here with the tug before we have a Code break to end all Code breaks. Voltar is written all over these boxes.”

  “Well, set the place on fire,” I said. “Burn it all up and get out of there as best you can.”

  “I don’t think these diamonds will burn.”

  Stabb was suddenly alert. “Diamonds?” he said.

  I was suddenly alert as well. “How many diamonds?” I said.

  “I can’t carry them out. I got them as far as the front porch and I can’t get them any further. They’re spilled all over the steps.”

  I looked at Stabb and Stabb looked at me. We nodded in sudden accord.

  “The moment that it’s dark here,” I said, “we’ll take off in the tug. You stay right there and wait for us. We’ll take care of everything.” And you, too, Raht, I added to myself.

  Right that moment it was 5:00 PM where we were. We could take off at 8:00 when night was thick. We would follow the sun’s shadow around the Earth and land in Connecticut.

  “I’ll try to hold on through the next five hours,” said Raht in a faint and pain-filled voice. “Promise not to abandon me if I go unconscious and can’t answer.”